Biostatistics PhD profile evaluation - Fall 2022

[LeoStat]

Hi I am currently a Statistics MS student and thinking about applying for mostly Biostatistics PhD programs for the Fall 2022. I would love to get some advice on the Biostatistics PhD application, and I am especially interested in advice on what schools you would recommend after reviewing my profile. Thank you for your time and effort. I sincerely appreciate it.  

 

Undergrad Institution: US LAC (US news rank ~ 50)
Major(s): Economics

Minor: Statistics
GPA: 3.71

Type of Student: International Asian male 

 

Graduate Institution: Large state US university (US news rank for Stat dept ~ 25)
Major(s): Statistics (MS)
GPA: 3.83

GRE:

Q: 165

V: 155

W: 5.5

 

This GRE is for my MS applications, and I will retake the GRE this summer and hopefully get better score. 

 

Coursework (completed)

 

Undergraduate: 

Math:

Calculus I & II & III (A), Probability Theory (A), Modern Computational Mathematics (A), Linear Algebra (A)

 

Stat:

Intro to Statistics (A-), Statistical Modeling (A-), Advanced Statistical Modeling (A), Statistical Theory (A), Intro to Machine Learning (B-)

 

Economics: 

Microeconomics (A-), Macroeconomics (A-), Game Theory (A), Econometrics (A) 

 

 

Graduate: 

Honors Analysis I & II (A-, A), Theory of Statistics I & II (A-), Advanced Regression (A), Applied Statistical Methods 2 (A)

 

For Honors Analysis, we used baby Rudin.

 

Future coursework

Statistical Computing, Survival Analysis, Statistical Methods for Correlated Data 

Those are all graduate level courses

 

Research experience

All research were done during undergrad.

1. Collaborated with two chemistry professors on assessing the students' performance after a sequence of chemistry courses. This research was a 1 year course called Research Methods, and students need to apply to participate on a research project. 

2. Summer biostatistics intern at one of the largest hospital in the US. Appeared on the author list for a paper that is submitted to the Journal of American College of Cardiology (JACC) and currently is under review. 

Skills

R, Python

 

Letters of recommendation

Two from my undergrad professors whom I took most statistics courses with. One from my advisor from my summer intern at the hospital. 

Schools

Here is a list of schools I am thinking about at this moment. These are not ordered by rank or admission difficulty.

Biostatistics: BU, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, UCSD, UW, Columbia, TAMU, Emory, Pitt, NC State, UNC, Rutgers, UT-Anderson, Rice, Umich, University of Waterloo (Canada), University of Toronto (Canada)

Statistics: 

Application questions: are there any special requirements for applicants holding a MS degree? For example, do students need to pass qualifying exam prior to application (my school for MS does not require us to take qualifying/prelim exams to graduate)

Please let me know if there are any schools I should cross off from my list, and some schools I should consider. I currently do not have a list of schools for Statistics PhD since I want to mainly focus on the biostat programs. However, if you think I am a good fit for some Statistics PhD programs, please let me know as well. 

Appreciate any and all advice!

[StatsG0d]

21 hours ago, LeoStat said:

Biostatistics: BU, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, UCSD, UW, Columbia, TAMU, Emory, Pitt, NC State, UNC, Rutgers, UT-Anderson, Rice, Umich, University of Waterloo (Canada), University of Toronto (Canada)

I think you're selling yourself really short. First, I wouldn't bother applying to UCSD, TAMU, Rutgers, or Rice. NCSU doesn't have a PhD in biostatistics, although they do have a Biostatistics concentration in their Statistics department. Also, not sure if UW refers to Wisconsin or Washington.

You're competitive for any of the biostats programs in the top-5. In fact, I would be shocked if you didn't at least get into one of UNC or Michigan. I would say apply to all the top-7 biostats programs and maybe those Canadian schools if you're interested. I'd maybe add McGill if you're interested in precision medicine. I'd also add Berkeley if you're interested in causal inference.

22 hours ago, LeoStat said:

Application questions: are there any special requirements for applicants holding a MS degree? For example, do students need to pass qualifying exam prior to application (my school for MS does not require us to take qualifying/prelim exams to graduate)

It sort of depends. If you've taken all the qualifying exam courses, the department *might* let you take the qualifying exam the summer you arrive. Otherwise, they may force you to retake their versions of the courses and then take the qualifying exam at the end of the first year. It usually depends on both the department and the specific case.

If the qualifying exam is taken in the 2nd year (e.g., how it is at UNC), they'll let you skip the first year curriculum, but you'll have to take the 2nd year curriculum and take the qualifying exam the summer after your first year.

[LeoStat]

On 5/27/2021 at 10:09 AM, StatsG0d said:

Also, not sure if UW refers to Wisconsin or Washington.

Thank you for all your advice! When I said UW, I was referring to the University of Washington - Seattle. Sorry about the confusion. 

[bayessays]

I think you can apply to the top programs, but I think the top 3 will be hard to crack.  I agree with @StatsG0d that you should cut some of the lower schools off the list -- although TAMU, Rice, NCSU and Rutgers are very good schools if you mean their statistics departments and I think are good schools to target.  I think you should probably get into better programs than Pitt/Emory/BU/Columbia/UT-Anderson/Vanderbilt though, and you should cut these down to maybe only 2 of the above as safer options.  I think the biggest zone to be targeting will be Michigan/UNC/Minnesota/UPenn, with a few below and a few above.  

[StatsG0d]

2 hours ago, bayessays said:

I think you can apply to the top programs, but I think the top 3 will be hard to crack.  I agree with @StatsG0d that you should cut some of the lower schools off the list -- although TAMU, Rice, NCSU and Rutgers are very good schools if you mean their statistics departments and I think are good schools to target.  I think you should probably get into better programs than Pitt/Emory/BU/Columbia/UT-Anderson/Vanderbilt though, and you should cut these down to maybe only 2 of the above as safer options.  I think the biggest zone to be targeting will be Michigan/UNC/Minnesota/UPenn, with a few below and a few above.  

I agree if the OP meant stats departments then they should apply to those. I assumed they meant biostats 

[cyberwulf]

I'm going to be a little bit of a downer here and say that I wouldn't bet on getting into a top 10 biostat program. The applicant pool has gotten insanely deep, and even places outside the top 5 can now afford to accept only the top handful of international students who apply. At our (top 10) program last year, I would estimate that we saw 30-50 international applicants with profiles at least strong as yours; we admitted fewer than 10.

[bayessays]

12 hours ago, cyberwulf said:

At our (top 10) program last year, I would estimate that we saw 30-50 international applicants with profiles at least strong as yours; we admitted fewer than 10.

Yikes, this is why I almost never comment on international applicants.  Bar just keeps getting insanely high.  @cyberwulf, is this mostly because of citizenship-related funding issues in biostatistics departments with government grants, or some desire to keep a balance of international vs domestic students?  Since OP completed his undergrad and master's in the US, I thought he would be judged similarly to a domestic applicant with this profile, who I think would have a good-but-not-guaranteed shot at schools in the 4-10 range.

[cyberwulf]

@bayessays Yes, most biostat programs admit 50% or more domestic for funding (training grant) reasons, but the applicant pool is usually >70% international. So the probability of being admitted is lower for international students. 
 

Also, this profile isn’t particularly impressive for a domestic biostat applicant in 2021; solid performance at a decent undergrad followed by average performance at a decent MS program is borderline for admission to a top 10 program.

(By the way, @LeoStat, please don’t take this the wrong way. Your results could be quite good with strong letters, and I hope my sense of your chances is overly pessimistic!)

[LeoStat]

2 hours ago, cyberwulf said:

Yes, most biostat programs admit 50% or more domestic for funding (training grant) reasons, but the applicant pool is usually >70% international. So the probability of being admitted is lower for international students. 

Yes, I realize that the admission is especially competitive for international students almost everywhere. 

Thank you for your honest advice. I think, as you suggested, I would add few more schools to my list that are not top 10 just to be safe.